Introductory Topics in Middle East and North African Studies (290-4-3)

Topic

Fossil Fuels and Climate Change in Palestine/Israe

Instructors

Shira Pinhas
Crowe 5-167
Office Hours: Tuesday 10:30 – 12:20

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-410: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Fossil Fuels and Climate Change in Palestine/Israel: A Global Perspective

With a warming rate double the global average and half of the world's oil reserves, the Middle East is a pivotal site for understanding the history, present, and future of climate change. Although Israel/Palestine is not today an oil-producing country, historically it was imagined differently: in the 19th and 20th centuries it was considered a promising frontier for oil exploration and became a regional hub of fossil fuel infrastructures, channeling Middle Eastern oil and North African gas to Europe. This seminar examines how the rise of fossil fuels and the dynamics of climate change played out in Palestine/Israel and shaped both the Zionist-Palestinian struggle and Palestine's place within the Middle East. We will consider how the Middle East became "Middle" through the interplay between energy sources, infrastructures, and colonial powers. We will explore how carbonization in the region gave rise to new forms of political rule, reshaping identities and altering environments, and how seemingly mundane infrastructures - from coaling depots to automobility - enabled and managed colonial power as well as resistance to it. Drawing on archival materials alongside fiction, poetry, and film in Arabic and Hebrew (all provided in English translation), we will analyze the intimate, everyday, and affective dimensions of carbonization and warming, exploring how these forces shaped subjectivities and societies. Finally, we will consider how different notions of heat and cooling technologies were tied to specific constructions of gender, race, and class.

Learning Objectives

Debunk common myths about energy transitions; Understand the historical complexities of the transition to fossil fuels and climate change; Debunk common myths about oil in the Middle East; Understand how different historical actors experienced and understood carbonization and warming.

Evaluation Method

Class participation: 10%
Weekly quizzes: 40%
Discussion Leaders: 10%
Paper, mid-term: 20%
Final project: 20%

Class Materials (Required)

Materials will be provided by instructor.

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area